Skill vs. Ability at Character Creation

Perhaps the most widely misunderstood aspect of Ultima Online has been its skill system. The system, which uses a Base Skill modified by associated Attributes in order to determine Actual Ability (the number displayed in your Skills Window), is certainly not made less confusing by the formulas that ORIGIN uses in order to keep track of each skill's particular influences. Every skill as we know it is actually a combination of up to four different character Attributes: Base Skill, Dexterity, Intelligence and Strength. Therefore, the number that is listed under your Skills Window may not represent your actual Base Skill level for a particular skill--it will instead represent the modified Ability level for that skill, which is made up of a percentage of certain Attributes, in addition to the Base Skill level.

The chart on the Skills page can be a bit misleading in this area, due to the fact that the equations change according to what percentage the Base Skill is at. Using Magery as an example--which is listed as being 85% Skill and 15% Intelligence--one would assume that the number in your Skills Window would be a combination of 85% of the character's Base Skill and 15% of their Intelligence. This is only partially correct; while the associated Attributes of a skill are multiplied by their percentages, the Base Skill is not. Furthermore, the actual percentage of an Associated Attribute that is added to the Base Skill is scaled according to how high the Base Skill is. The actual percentage of the Associated Attribute that is considered to be a bonus to the Base Skill is directly proportional to the where the Base Skill is located on a scale from 0 to 100. The higher the Base Skill, the lower the bonus gained from Attributes upon character creation. (I told you that the Skill List can be misleading! ;)

The actual formula for converting the Base Skill to and from the Actual Ability for a specific skill at the time of character creation, using Magery as an example, would be:

Notice that the Base Skill is not lessened by a percentage (and never will be). As a specific example, if a person creates a character with a Magery skill of 50 and an Intelligence of 45, the Actual Ability which would be displayed in that character's Skills Window would be 53.3, or:

1. 15 multiplied by 50% (the Base Magery Skill subtracted from 100) equals 7.5
2. 45 (Intelligence) multiplied by 7.5% equals 3.375
3. 50 (Base Magery Skill) plus 3.375 equals 53.375
4. 53.375 rounded down to the nearest tenth equals 53.3 (Actual Ability)

Because of this, if (and only if) a character is created with a Base Magery Skill of 0 and an Intelligence of 45, that character will gain the maximum bonus to Magery possible for high Intelligence: 6.7. Remember that the above formula has been determined to be absolutely correct only for determing Attribute Bonuses and Base Skills at the time of character creation. Due to the fact that Ability is influenced so heavily at the time of a character's inception, it may be impossible to determine what a character's true Base Skills are at any future point without knowing what it's original starting statistics were. As a character develops and its Actual Abilities become more and more heavily influenced by Attributes, it becomes harder and harder to dissect that character's skills down to their Base Skill level. As more information becomes available, I will post it here.

Related Fact: The combined total of all of the Actual Ability percentages listed in a character's Skills Window at the time of its creation are considered to be that character's "Newbie Skills". Any penalties resulting from resurrecting, any death-penalties, etc. will never bring a character below this total sum; how exactly these points are distributed, however, is not taken into account.

Skill Gain and Attributes

Due to the way stat-gain functions within UO, Skills and Attributes are intrinsically linked; Attributes may only raise by associated Skill-use and Base Skill %'s gain bonuses from Associated Attributes. Remember, however, that the bonuses gained from these Associated Attributes may not be perceptible once the Base Skill has risen high enough. Also, Attributes are scaled so as to become more and more difficult to raise as a character's stats levels increase.

Attribute-gain resulting from an Associated Base Skill rising is determined in a similar manner to the formula listed above--the higher the Base Skill, the less the gain a character will experience in its Associated Attributes. I'm not sure on this, but I also believe that there is a random factor included in the determination of Attribute-gain, most likely associated with the same formula.

There are also the "0% Skills", or skills that are not influenced by Attributes at all, but still provide bonuses to their particular Associated Attributes. For example, although Spirit Speak will not benefit from bonuses derived from Intelligence, it will still provide the same Intelligence-gain as it would if it were influenced by that Attribute.

Related Fact: Skill Titles are determined by the Base Skill, while most minimum skill requirements for casting certain spells, making more advanced items, etc. rely upon the Actual Ability, or the % displayed in your Skills Window.

Skill/Attribute Caps

There are some huge misconceptions in this area, mainly due to the misunderstanding of the Skill/Ability system as a whole. Once and for all, these are the actual caps for Base Skills and Attributes (the "Stat Caps"):

• Base Skills: 700
• Attributes: 225

Now, before you start screaming, "But Den! I've counted my skills and they add up to well over a thousand points! How can this be?", take a deep breath and consider the facts that I've mentioned above...

1. The Skill Cap limits a character's skills according to Base Skill.
2. The number listed in your Skills Window is Actual Ability and does not represent Base Skill.
3. Base Skill is (in most cases) always less than the Actual Ability displayed in your Skills Window, due to bonuses derived from Associated Attributes.
4. Therefore: The numbers in your Skills Window may total to an amount much greater than 700.

The Base Skill and Attribute Caps are considered "soft" caps, since there exists the possibility of gaining a total that exceeds the given limit. The likelihood of exceeding the total point-cap is extremely hard to do and may depend on at what point a character was created.

Related Fact: "There's a factor in the skill table called "SkillStat" which reflects how much of the Ability in the skill is from skill (Base Skill), and how much is from stat (Attributes). For example, with Alchemy, it's 90% skill and 10% stat. Then there's what stats count. Alchemy is counted as 5% DEX, 5% INT and 80% Intelligence. So if you had 100 DEX and 100 Intelligence, you'd get 5 points of Alchemy thanks to DEX, and 5 points thanks to your INT, for a 10 point bonus to your actual skill. Camping however is 50% skill, 50% stat, and the INT/STR/DEX is near evenly split in thirds. So Camping is a lot easier to get "skill bonuses" in than Alchemy is..." - Designer Dragon

Glossary of Terms

Actual Ability ("ability") - The total combined skill displayed in a character's Skills Window. Always influenced by Base Skill, may be influenced by DEX, INT and STR.

Associated Attributes - The Attributes that a particular Skill is influenced by (gains point-bonuses from).

Attributes ("stats") - The physical characteristics of a character; Dexterity (DEX), Intelligence (INT) and Strength (STR).

Base Skill ("skill") - The unmodified (by Attributes) skill percentage.

Newbie Skills - The combined total of all Ability points that a character possesses when it is first created. That character's total may never fall below this point, when all Skills are added together.

Skill Title ("professional title") - The paperdoll title resulting from Base Skill level (e.g., "Journeyman", or "Master").

Stat Cap ("skill/attribute cap") - The overall limit of total points that a character may have in Base Skill and Attributes (determined separately).